TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge

Official riders and more than 60km reproduced of  the Snaefell Mountain tracks make this game very interesting for fans from the exciting real life race competition. The developer behind WRC and Flatout 4 took quite some time creating this motorcycling game. As we all know development time doesn’t mean anything for quality (Duke Nukem Forever …) so take off your helmet and read our review for TT Isle of Man. 

THE GOOD

• It might be weird to start with sound but seriously I am so impressed by what developer Kylotonn accomplished. The overall sounds from the motor are realistic but what makes it a real remarkable experience is the sound from the impact of the wind. Never heard something like this before, in such a good way, in other motorcycle or car games.
• The racing genre has some beautiful games, while TT Isle of Man doesn’t reach the visual bar from Forza for example it is still a very impressive game on Xbox One X. The reproduction of the route is detailed and the developer mentions that it is an exact replica. I’m not known enough with the competition so I can’t say if that’s true or not. What I can say though is that the long track is varied and I really loved how some sections really have that narrow feeling because trees block corner views. You have some small pop ups in the environments but most of the times the performance is excellent.
• Sense of speed, it is something that many racing games fail in but this game pretty much nails it. With the aforementioned wind sounds at high-speed, and the help from some narrow roads. While driving in the pilot eyes or windshield camera it is a real realistic joy. The effect is slightly less in the other two camera options but it still remains an awesome sense of speed.
• Handling of the motorcycles is pretty good and each different bike is a little bit different. Understand that this is a simulation game though, so going even slightly off-track or even the smallest manual shift mistake will result in failure of control of the bike. Not every racing game has to hold your hand, right?

Mixed Feelings

• An insane high learning curve makes it hard to recommend for casual or average gamers. Hardcore gamers are in for a treat, literally even starting a race is challenging because just pressing the acceleration button is enough to completely lose control over your machine so you need to carefully and thoughtfully go faster and faster. You don’t have a rewind button so mistakes will result in impossible wins, even on the easiest difficulty.
• Career mode has a small meta-game that forces you to use your income (and expenses) in a smart way. You can actually get a game over screen because you don’t have enough credit to keep your motorcycles in good shape, the game warns you for that too in the beginning. I personally didn’t get to experience that though.  (Hey! I’m good with money) Winning races will earn you money and fans, or sometimes even sponsored bikes.

THE BAD

• Laughable bad AI is the only negative I can say about this TT Isle video game. You regularly see real weird mistakes from other drivers, an example: sometimes they seem to see a corner but in fact you are driving on a straight line, result? They spawn again because they were out-of-bounds in the environment.  Another real annoying thing is how aggressive they are, it isn’t an easy game and falling from your motorcycle because the AI crashes into you full speed isn’t an enjoyable thing. Bashing you from left or right, it isn’t realistic and very annoying. Because once you fall you can forget reaching the top three.

TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge [score: 7,9/10] So far the best simulation motorcycle game I played on Xbox. It is a very hard game to master but once you get a hold on it the challenging gameplay is really fun. Oh, and that sound … awesome!